Category: 2024

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Sam Garson: Everybody’s Trawling for the Weekend, September 12, 2024

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Sam Garson

Aboard Henry B. Bigelow

September 6 – 25, 2024

Mission: Leg 1 of Fall Bottom Trawl Survey

Geographic Area of Cruise: Mid-Atlantic Coast

Date: September 13, 2024

Weather Data from the Bridge:

Latitude: 36.93°N
Longitude: 76.3°W
Wind Speed: E 15 G 21 mph
Air Temperature: 22°C (71°F)

Science and Technology Log

NOAA’s Fall Bottom Trawl Survey began in 1963 and holds the distinction of being the longest-running standardized fishery-independent scientific trawl survey in the world. Its primary goal was to monitor the abundance and distribution of fish species in the northwest Atlantic Ocean, particularly on the continental shelf stretching from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, to the Gulf of Maine. However, over time, the survey’s role has evolved into something far greater.

With over 60 years of continuous data collection, this survey is not only an important resource for understanding fish population dynamics, but it also serves as a data source for marine research across the globe. The data gathered provides unparalleled insights into long-term trends in marine ecosystems, making it a cornerstone of NOAA’s fisheries management program. This consistency allows scientists to assess how various factors—such as fishing pressure, environmental changes, and oceanographic conditions—affect fish populations over time.

By maintaining strict protocols and procedures across the decades, NOAA ensures that the data collected remains comparable year after year. As a result, this long-running trawl survey is a powerful tool for detecting shifts in marine biodiversity, population fluctuations, and changes in habitat use among species. The findings from the survey inform not only U.S. fisheries policy but also global conservation efforts, positioning it as a keystone project for marine resource management. The enduring nature of the Fall Bottom Trawl Survey has provided a reference point for understanding the impact of climate change on marine ecosystems, as rising ocean temperatures and shifting currents are increasingly influencing species distribution.

view from the distances of the ship underway. it's a cloudy day, gray skies and water, and the image itself is a little cloudy - we can't make out the NOAA logo or ship number on the hull.
NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow. Photo Credit: Sam Garson
a diagram of NOAA Ship Henry B Bigelow showing the plankton net, trawl net, and sonar capabilities. title: State of the Art Research Vessel Henry B. Bigelow. box labels identify the following features: (1) Navy designed "quiet" hull does not disturb marine life. (2) Advanced 3-D sonar gives researchers a bigger picture of fish and their marine habitat. (3) Plankton net gives an accurate survey of fish food supply. (4) Fish net can help gauge abundance of fish stocks.
Illustration credit: James Warren / Cape Cod Times, Information source: NOAA

How Does a Trawl Work?

Members of the Bottom Trawl team work in 12 hour shifts, Midnight to Noon and Noon to Midnight. When it is your turn on watch you will wait for the ship to reach the next “station” or sampling site. Once there the survey team will deploy a CTD and possibly a “Bongo” plankton tow.

two crewmembers wearing hard hats, life vests, and gloves stand on the deck of the ship near a large piece of scientific equipment. the conductivity, temperature, and depth probe, along with one water sample bottle, is mounted inside a cylindrical metal frame attached to a cable.
Crewmembers ready to deploy the CTD.

Once on station, the ship will deploy and stream the trawling net for between 16 and 20 minutes at a specified depth. Far from a simple task, this operation of the net streaming behind the ship is monitored closely with technology and data. The watch lead has to work closely with the bridge to ensure that the trawl net is running through the water properly. Monitoring the opening, speed and depth throughout the dive. Once all of that is confirmed to be in good working order you’ll hear the call over the PA, “HAUL BACK!”

photo of a computer screen showing a plot. on the x-axis is time. the y-axis shows depth and "TE Height," and there are three plot lines.
Trawl net monitoring. Photo Credit: Sam Garson

Haul Back

Once the “haul back” call is given the deck crew springs into action to bring the net back on deck, while the science team moves into position in the sorting room. This process starts in the ready room, where everyone keeps their foul weather gear and gloves.

view of a collection of orange rain coats, orange overalls, and large rubber boots spilling out of a closet-type area on one side of a room
Ready Room. Photo Credit: Sam Garson

Once in their foul weather gear, the team will move to their positions along the first of three main conveyor belts. One member of the team will move out to the checker box where all of the trawl contents are first placed. From there the checker will feed the marine life into the first conveyor belt that brings all the specimens up to the main conveyor belt. Here the marine specimens are all sorted into buckets and bins by species, size and sex. The watch leader will tell the team what they are going to “run” that trawl, meaning which species do they leave on the belt to be deposited into bins at the very end. Depending on the goals, catch diversity or needs the watch leader could run everything from squid or crabs to sea robins.

view inside the wet lab. there are rows of stations, each comprised of a metal table with a measuring board, a drainage sink, a work surface, a computer monitor.
Cutting Station. Photo Credit: Sam Garson

Now that everything is sorted into buckets and bins the real data collection begins! The watch is broken into teams of two. A recorder and cutter work together to process every single marine sample for a variety of data products. These trawls are incredibly productive and have lots of scientists from institutions around the country sending in requests for samples and data. This is where the computer screens are so critical. As buckets of samples move down the last conveyor belt, the cutter scans them into the system and then is prompted by the computer to walk through any number of data collection procedures. The recorder enters them all into the computer, bags the samples, and processes the documentation needed. On this cruise we have been freezing samples, collecting otoliths (unfamiliar? check out this great NOAA resource), collecting stomachs and measuring and weighing hundreds of different species across all of our trawls.

trawl nets spread out on deck - they are large, green, with orange buoys attached. one net is attached to the A-frame at the aft of the ship's deck.
Trawl net on deck
empty conveyor belt in the sorting room. one purple-gloved hand reaches in front the right side of the image and rests on the rim of the conveyor belt.
Conveyor belt
the empty sorting table in the wet lab, stacks of empty plastic buckets underneath.
Sorting table and buckets
another view of sorting tables, stacks of buckets
Sorting buckets
cutting stations - metal tables with measuring boards, data screens - lined up next to a conveyor belt
Cutting stations
in the wet lab, above one table, is a mounted screen showing four views from cameras mounted on the deck, displaying the trawl net from different angles
Trawl video display
a scientist acting as recorder enters data on a screen at one of the cutting stations
Entering data
science team members stand around sorting tables; one appears to place something inside a sample bag
Bagging samples
another view of science team members bagging samples
Processing samples
science team members standing at a cutting station - two crabs rest on the measuring board
Some crabs
view down at a measuring board, as someone wearing yellow foul weather gear and blue gloves reaches toward one end
Cleaning up the cutting station

Once that is complete we clean our stations and get ready for the next trawl. Sometimes this could be 30 minutes away, or even an hour, at times. It can be instantly after completing the last trawl. Working in 12 hour shifts, 24 hours a day means that the amount of data we are producing and cataloging is massive, but so is the job of sampling on the scale needed to help scientists answer questions about the ecology, populations, diversity and impacts of climate change along the Eastern Seaboard.

Personal Log

It’s been 10 years since I last sailed and I have been amazed at how quickly I’ve fallen back into the swing of life at sea. The night shift from 12:00 AM – 12:00 PM was a rough adjustment at first, but pretty quickly my body adapted and I settled into the routine.

It has been incredibly interesting to compare my previous time on an ROV based exploration vessel with the reality of a trawl based research mission. The E/V Nautilus was my home for 7 years and walking around the Bigelow definitely brings back some amazing memories, but it also has been a great reminder of how different things are across platforms. The ins and outs of life on Bigelow and the pace of the trawl are worlds different from the 24 hour ops of the ROV missions. I’ll write more on that later, but it has been a really cool comparison to make. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the cruise goes as we are only 3 days into our mission, and lots of cool fish still to come!

Did You Know?

Henry Bigelow was one of the key members of the scientific community who helped found Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, here is an amazing photo of Henry Bigelow with WHOI’s mascot!

a scanned black and white photograph. A man, dressed in a 3 piece suit and white hat, stands on the deck of a ship - the shoreline is visible at the horizon. he braces himself, his left foot positioned back, because a goat standing it on its hind legs is pushing against his chest with its forelegs. the man holds something with both hands, up toward the goat's face - maybe food.
Henry Bigelow and Buck the WHOI Mascot (1904). Photo Credit: NEFSC NOAA
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Lisa Werner: How Does Communication with Popoki Work? September 11, 2024

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Lisa Werner

Aboard NOAA Ship Bell M. Shimada

August 29-September 13, 2024

Mission: EXPRESS Project

Geographic Area of Cruise: Pacific Coast, near Northern California

Date: September 11, 2024

Weather Data from the Bridge (Coquille Bank):

Latitude: 42º58.378’ N      

Longitude: 124º50.146’W    

Wind Speed: 23.78 knots

Air Temperature: 14.3ºC/57.74ºF

Conditions: Rain

Science Log

Let’s talk about how Popoki, the autonomous underwater vehicle (or AUV), ‘converses’ with the AUV pilot aboard the ship. The map and directions for the route Popoki will be mapping is programmed into her computers ahead of each dive. On this mission, Popoki has been deployed daily, so every evening, the scientists carefully plan out where she will go on each deployment. They also plan the path Popoki will go when on location – this cruise she has made a lot of sawtooth-shaped patterns to give the scientists the greatest survey of what is in the areas they want to study.

photo of a computer screen showing, at center, an image from a computer-generated model of the underwater bathymetry of an area. Overlaid on the image are topographic lines and depth numbers. overlaid on that is a zig-zagging white line showing Popoki's route.
Of course, tomorrow’s dive pattern is not a sawtooth pattern. The pattern is drawn out in the white lines over the diagram of the ocean floor contour.

Though this seems like it would be easy to set up Popoki and let her run her course, that is not quite the end of the story. During a dive, the ocean current is sometimes unknown in any given area, so the AUV pilot needs to be able to help Popoki adjust her positioning. It would not be a very big help to get pictures of an entirely different area than the scientists were aiming for because the ocean currents took Popoki to a different area of the sea floor. The scientists also need to be able to help Popoki if she gets stuck on fishing line, or if the conditions above the water change – such as weather changes or vessel traffic – that would require Popoki to surface ahead of her scheduled time.

To communicate with Popoki, an acoustic modem system is used. There is a modem aboard the ship that can send messages to Popoki through a series of chirping sounds. The pitches and lengths of the chirps are all part of the code that Popoki can understand. She has a device that ‘listens’ for these sounds and can then follow the coded instructions to alter her pre-programmed course. She also communicates regularly with the AUV pilot – sending the coordinates she believes she’s at, her depth, battery life, and how many pictures she has taken so far in the dive.

close-up view of a piece of electronic equipment inside a water-proof housing (with the lid removed to show the contents). There are knobs, dials, CAT-5 cables.
The modem that communicates with Popoki

Popoki’s communication device points upward, so when deployment is taking place, the scientists place a transducer into the water to use to communicate. Once Popoki is on her way to her programmed starting point, and farther away from the ship, the transducer is removed from the water.

crewmembers, wearing hard hats and life vests, lean over the rail of the ship and use hooked poles to guide a small yellow object suspended from what looks like a fishing pole safely down toward the water's surface.
This is the transducer that is placed in the water for deployment

Sometimes there are difficulties with this communication, and this is where the ship’ crew plays a very important role. The officers on the bridge work to position the ship in areas that allow for Popoki and the acoustic modem to speak to each other easily. The angle of the ship will change as Popoki goes through her programmed patterns, adjusting so that the chirps of the modem have a direct line to Popoki. Distance also plays an important part of the communication process – if the ship and Popoki are too far away from each other, there can be interference with the communication. Ocean current, wave heights and lengths, and other sounds coming from the ship can interfere with the communication, as well. The AUV pilot and the ship’s crew work very closely together throughout the entirety of the dive to help the Popoki and the pilot have clear communication. 

photo over someone's shoulder of a computer screen displaying a gridded graph. on the graph is a simplified outline of the ship (like a rectangle with a triangle attached to one end) and some dots to the ship's port side
AUV pilot Jeff Anderson’s screen showing the ship’s position and Popoki’s position (Denoted as dots)

At this point, you may be wondering WHY do we use Popoki. I’m sure that you can see her benefits in exploring areas we have not yet seen, but the why actually goes much deeper than that (no pun intended). One of the first things Popoki is doing is looking at areas that are being considered for future offshore wind farm sites. There is a great interest in putting wind turbines over the ocean to create renewable energy for our country. Having been on the Pacific Ocean for 2 weeks now, I can definitely attest to the fact that the wind is very strong in these areas, so there is plenty of energy to harvest. Popoki is identifying the deep sea habitats and geological features on the seafloor that would need to be considered when anchoring any wind turbines. 

Popoki is also looking at the changes to the habitats as a result of different regulations that have taken place in fishing areas in this region. Some of the locations we have visited were mapped out by Popoki in the past, and scientists are looking to see whether fishing regulations have helped the populations of ocean life return. Finally, Popoki has been looking for evidence of seeps in the ocean floor. These geological areas are spots where cracks in the ocean floor have occurred due to plate tectonics. 

underwater image of the seafloor. it's mostly muddy, with only a little relief, but through the center is a dark crack in the floor, with what appears to be steam (maybe hotter water) rising out of it. we can also make out what might be corals, and a fish.
Picture of an ocean seep (Photo credit: Popoki)

Personal Log

The ship’s crew spends a lot of time preparing for safety. Just like we have fire, tornado, and lockdown drills in our school, the ship has drills to practice for emergencies as well. They need to be ready for any emergency, and everyone has a role to play. We have practiced the drills each week. 

Throughout my time on NOAA Ship Bell M. Shimada, I have gotten to experience some pretty amazing things. However, my absolute favorite moment was getting “Helm time.” That’s right – I got to drive the ship! With Ops Officer Lieutenant Jaime Hendrix and Ensign Megan Sixt guiding me, I got to turn the ship to hard rudder, causing her to drive in a circle. I also got to get her back to her appropriate heading for the transit we were making, and then practice keeping her on course. It was really interesting to see how the ship reacts to the controls and to see what she does! I am so grateful to CO Laura Gibson for this opportunity, and really appreciate the help LT Hendrix and ENS Sixt gave me!

photo of Lisa wearing a bright red survival suit - all we can see of her is her eyes (with glasses) and a portion of her Teacher at Sea beanie hat. she stands on deck on a clear day and stretches her arms out for the photo
Me wearing the Immersion (or “Gumby”) suit (Photo credit: Curt Whitmire)

We practice where to gather, or ‘muster,’ in the event of a fire or abandoning ship. At the very beginning of the cruise, we get right to work with a tour of where to find the lifeboats, how to deploy them, and then we get to the drills. 

Recently, I had the opportunity to learn to use the flares and the line thrower. The line thrower is used for ship to ship transfers or for rescuing someone who’s fallen overboard. Although it is really fun to get the experience to use these devices, it is definitely something that you hope only gets used in training. However, knowing they are there and that everyone knows how to use them makes you feel a bit better if an emergency does happen.

Lisa, wearing very large, thick gloves, poses near the ship's railing and smiles at the camera. in her left hand, over the railing, she holds a lit flare. it's a mostly clear day, and the sky is blue with a few clouds, and the ocean has a few whitecaps.
I now know how to use the flares! (Photo credit: Alice Kojima-Clarke)
Trying out the line thrower
Three women stand close to one another at the command center of the bridge. Lisa, at right, holds the helm with two hands and looks up at a screen mounted from the ceiling. LT Hendrix, middle, wearing a t-shirt with a NOAA logo, looks down at the control panel. ENS Six, left, reaches her hand toward the panel. They are all smiling.
We are not on autopilot!!! ENS Sixt and LT Hendrix helping me learn to drive a ship! (Photo credit: Randy Scott)

Music Connections

Communicating with Popoki has a lot to do with acoustics. Listening to her pilot talk about how important the angles between Popoki and the ship are reminded me a lot of preparing for a recital when I was a music education student at UW-Whitewater. As an undergraduate, we had several performance requirements per semester. For solo performances, the more experienced music majors would always pass on a very important piece of acoustic information to the new undergrads – always aim the trombone bell at the 3rd exit sign along the stage right wall. Hitting this sweet spot would cause the recital hall to ring, the trombone sound to be dark and full, and the experience to be the best for all who were listening. New trombone majors learned very quickly that this was not a piece of urban legend, but by bouncing the brass sound off of the wall at this angle, it was much more pleasant for the audience than to play directly at their faces. 

view of an empty performance hall
The beautiful Light Recital Hall at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater – a great place to perform and explore acoustics! (Photo credit: Dr. Glenn Hayes)

Communicating with Popoki is similar in a way – rather than bouncing her communications off of corners and walls, however, she responds better to the sound waves coming directly at her. She has a sweet spot, too, but it is more about decreasing the angles. This is a much more efficient method of communication for her, because she does not care about the timbre of her chirps!

Another great moment I really enjoyed during our time together was helping our Chief Scientist Dr. Clarke learn ukulele! I always believe that music is everywhere, and Dr. Clarke proved that theory again for me by bringing her ukulele along on this cruise when she heard the Teacher at Sea was a music teacher! Hopefully she had as much fun as I did!

In the computer lab, Lisa and Dr. Clarke sit in chairs facing one another. Lisa, smiling, leans forward to hold up an open laptop where Dr. Clarke can see it easily. Dr. Clarke watches the screen as she picks at her ukulele.
Dr. Elizabeth Clarke showing off her virtuoso skills with a little “Hot Cross Buns” (Photo credit: Alice Kojima-Clarke)

Sounds from the ship today will feature the sound of the ship’s engine outside from the very top deck of the ship. 

This is the sound of the engine humming from the Fly Deck. You can also hear the waves, as we are in transit to our next station!

Student Questions

St. Bruno students are fascinated by sea creatures, and they have sent me on a quest to learn about the octopus. I think they will be very excited to see this picture and learn about the deep sea octopus!

underwater image of the seafood showing many brittle stars and some corals. in the lower right, there is a sponge, which since it is viewed from above appears as a white ring. inside the sponge, an octopus is curled up - we can see one eye and several tentacles
Look at the octopus curled up in a sponge in the bottom right corner. You can see the octopus’s eye sticking out! (Photo credit: Popoki)

Final Notes

The NOAA Teacher at Sea Program is an incredible opportunity for any teacher. As you can see, you do not need to be a science teacher in order to apply. There are so many connections to be made with the ocean, and students get really excited about learning through their teacher’s experience. Applications for the program will open soon. You can find more information here. Thank you so much to the crew of NOAA Ship Bell M. Shimada, the EXPRESS Scientists, and the NOAA Teacher at Sea program for this opportunity. What an incredible experience!

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Alexa Helm: Introduction, September 10, 2024

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Alexa Helm
Aboard R/V Tiĝlax̂
September 10-20, 2024

Mission: Northern Gulf of Alaska Long Term Ecological Monitoring Project

Geographic Area of Cruise: Northern Gulf of Alaska – Port: Seward

Date: September 10, 2024

Weather Data from the Homer Spit

Time: 0930

Latitude: 59.601° N

Longitude: 151.410° W

Wind: ESE 1.9 knots

Air Temperature: 51.6°F

Air pressure: 29.97 in

Personal Introduction

Ahoy! My name is Alexa Helm, and I am so beyond excited to be joining the Northern Gulf of Alaska Long-Term Ecological Monitoring (NGA LTER) team for their fall cruise on R/V Tiĝlax̂! I live in Homer, which is a short (3.5 hour) drive down the road from Seward where we’ll be departing from tonight and beginning our 10-day science adventure in the Gulf. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the weather will be as calm in Seward as it is right now in Homer… I guess we’ll just have to wait and see!

I work for an environmental education nonprofit called the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies (CACS), and my job is somewhat of a two-parter. During the summertime, I coordinate and lead overnight youth and family camps across Kachemak Bay from Homer, and during the school year I work as an educator leading a variety of day and overnight programs for students of all ages. We strive to make these programs place-based, culturally-responsive, and led by student inquiry and exploration to facilitate meaningful learning experiences and relationship building with all of the wonders within and surrounding Kachemak Bay. 

A common theme for my job throughout the year is that I get to work with youth from Homer, other parts of Alaska, and from the Lower 48 outside in the incredibly rich and special ecosystems of Kachemak Bay. One of my favorite parts of my job is that I get the opportunity to learn just as much (and honestly, usually more) from the students I work with as they learn from me. 

Here are a couple highlights from some of the programs I’ve had the privilege to be part of recently:

two middle-grade students (we cannot see their faces) stand on either side of table that contains a partially-laid out skeleton. each student grasps a bone (or perhaps bone replica) and works to place it in the layout.
Campers investigating marine mammal anatomy during a tabletop skeleton articulation. Photo courtesy of the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies.
three students - one standing, the other two crouching - are on a seaweed-covered pile of rocks at the edge of a tide pool. the middle student reaches down to grasp something. beyond, the bay is calm, we can see tree-lined mountains on the other side, and the sky is bright with many white wispy clouds.
Campers learning about intertidal ecology during low tide. Photo courtesy of the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies.
Four students stand around a table set up on an outdoor pavilion, with trees in the background. on the table in front of them are two salmon laid out on plastic; they've been partially dissected and salmon organs also dot the table. three of the students look on eagerly and reach to touch the organs. a fourth sits back, looking more skeptical, holding hands out of the way.
Campers exploring salmon organs during a dissection. Photo courtesy of the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies.

Science and Technology Log

The NGA LTER project is really cool for a lot of reasons. It’s focused on investigating the many different factors and processes that drive productivity in the NGA and that make it so rich and resilient, and how all of these pieces respond to short- and long-term changes associated with climate change. These are some pretty massive questions, which means that there are a lot of different disciplines, individuals, and institutions working together to learn more about this exquisite ecosystem. On this cruise, researchers will be diving into questions related to zooplankton, phytoplankton, nutrients and chemistry, physics, marine mammals and seabirds… the list goes on! 

This cruise will be sampling stations along the 150-nautical-mile-long Seward transect line and in Prince William Sound, though the project also samples other transects in the NGA during other times of the year. Not only is this the 28th year of a fall survey along the Seward Line, but it also marks the 54th year of collecting data in the Gulf of Alaska more broadly.

a simple map of the Gulf of Alaska, including some shaded colors to indicate bathymetry and topography. survey transects are marked in dotted lines extending into the Gulf from, west to east: Kodiak Island (through Albatross Bank), near Cook Inlet (through Portlock Bank), south of Seward - GAK-1 - through the Amatuli Trough, then also from east of Prince William Sound (MI), and east of Copper River (KI).
NGA LTER survey transects (Photo credit: NGA LTER)

A huge part of this research is all of the partnerships and collaborations that help to make it all happen. The NGA was established as an LTER through the National Science Foundation back in 2018, and has been funded by the North Pacific Research Board, the Alaska Ocean Observing System, and the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council since 2005. Before that, surveys were part of the U.S. Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics program, and even before that, it all started thanks to University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) professor Dr. Thomas C. Royer with the first Seward Line survey back in 1970. Don’t worry, I won’t quiz you on this, it’s just pretty cool to see how many different institutions have helped to make this research happen over the years.

Nowadays, the NGA LTER project has a lot of incredible people working on it from a lot of different places, including UAF, Western Washington University, University of California Santa Cruz, Oregon State University, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, University of Hawaii Manoa, Axiom Data Science, and the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies. NGA researchers supply data and written contributions to NOAA’s regular Gulf of Alaska Ecosystem Status Reports, and collect larval fish samples for other NOAA Fisheries research projects. Oh, and did I mention that R/V Tiĝlax̂ is a U.S. Fish and Wildlife vessel? The list of collaborators seems endless; it’s pretty incredible to see so many people and institutions coming together to learn more about the NGA.

view of the 120-ft long research vessel alongside a pier. the sky is gray and cloudy, and the water in the harbor is very still.
R/V Tiĝlax̂ in the Homer Harbor this spring!

I’m so grateful to be part of NOAA’s 2024 crew of Teachers at Sea, and can’t wait to bring you all on this adventure with me!

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Lisa Werner: eDNA Studies, September 6, 2024

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Lisa Werner

Aboard NOAA Ship Bell M. Shimada

August 29-September 13, 2024

Mission: EXPRESS Project

Geographic Area of Cruise: Pacific Coast, near Northern California

Date: September 6, 2024

Weather Data from the Bridge (Mendocino Ridge Essential Fish Habitat Conservation Area):

Latitude: 40º18.178’ N      

Longitude: 124º48.470’W    

Wind Speed: 5.87 knots

Air Temperature: 14.3ºC/57.74ºF

Conditions: Foggy

Science and Technology Log

There are many methods of studying the ecosystem of the ocean on the mission that I am on, and another method we are utilizing is that of Environmental DNA (referred to as eDNA). Every living organism in the ocean leaves behind traces of its existence. Much like humans shed skin cells and hair, and cats and dogs shed fur, ocean organisms leave behind skin, scales, and waste products. These artifacts contain DNA, and can last in the water for anywhere from 7 to 21 days. Scientists have ways of collecting eDNA using the CTD (Conductivity, Temperature, and Depth) rosette.  

view up the starboard deck of the ship as a large apparatus - a circle of gray cylinders contained in a metal frame - is hoisted above the ocean surface by a davit arm. four crewmembers wearing hard hats and life vests stand on deck watching. the sky is gray clouds, and the ocean is calm.
Deploying the CTD
top down view of the CTD rosette as it is lowered into the water
CTD off the side of the ship.

A CTD rosette is a device that is routinely lowered off of the ship to monitor the temperature and conductivity of the water at measured depths in the water column. NOAA Ship Bell M. Shimada’s rosette has 12 containers, called Niskin bottles, that are opened before deployment, and then triggered at different depths one at a time as the rosette ascends, trapping the water from that depth inside. Separate from these collections, sensors analyze the temperature, salinity (salt levels), pressure, dissolved oxygen, turbidity (cloudiness), and other useful information. The data collected from the CTD shows up instantaneously on a computer screen aboard the ship. 

photo of a computer screen showing two side by side graphs. we can see different colored lines on the graphs - which have depth as the y axis - but it is hard to make out details on the graphs.
Data coming in from the CTD dive

To collect eDNA, the scientists look at where the biggest temperature changes happen (called the thermocline). Once the CTD is back aboard the ship’s deck, the scientists pump the water collected in the Niskin bottles triggered at the depths surrounding the thermocline through a filter. The eDNA material is collected and strained into this filter, where it is preserved to be sent to a lab for further analysis. Once the eDNA gets to the lab, scientists look at the DNA “fingerprints” left behind by organisms and match them to a database of known DNA. The scientists then have knowledge of what organisms were present in that location in the ocean at the depths those samples were collected from.

fairly close-up view of a woman wearing an orange hard hat, a purple jacket, and purple latex gloves, crouching near the CTD rosette and the net-covered rail of the ship's deck. she grasps a sort of hose in her left hand and uses her right to point to a small filter attached to the hose.
Scientist Alice Kojima-Clarke pointing out the eDNA filter

This goes hand in hand with the work I blogged about last on the MultiNet. The identification of the plankton that Jenn is doing is part of the work that goes into the database helping scientists identify DNA from the eDNA samples.

Personal Log

I’ve gotten a lot of questions about what the food is like on the ship, and anyone who knows me knows that food is a big part of my life! The ship’s cook, Ronnie, is amazing. He cooks the food from scratch, and it is not uncommon to see meatballs being rolled out for the next meal, or other prep taking place. The meals are served buffet-style, and there is no shortage of food. Even the pickiest eater would be happily satisfied here. 

view of a computer screen reading: MENU SEPT 4, and listing the food options available at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. dinner options include chicken schnitzel, pork chops, vegetable couscous.
The menu from a few days ago
top down view of a metal food service bar, with labels pointing out roasted lamb, fried rockfish, garlic potatoes, etc.
Dinner from tonight

For Labor Day, we got to have a cookout on the ship’s back deck. It was quite the feast, featuring all of the grilled meat and fixings you could want. 

a man stands at a grill flipping chicken patties as the fire leaps up from the coals.
Grilling steaks for Labor Day

Also, if at any meal you ‘forget’ to take dessert, Ed, the steward, will remind you. He’s always looking out for your best interest! He also always has the best jazz music playing in the kitchen. 

view into the galley of a man standing at a metal sink washing dishes; in the background another man carries metal trays to a counter.
Ed always has the biggest smile on his face – you can tell he takes great pride in his job! Ronnie is in the background, and his food is spoiling us!

Finally, I have to take a minute to wish my Dad a happy birthday! I had some cake to celebrate you today, Dad!!!

close-up view of a large piece of red velvet cake on a serving plate; the cake is iced with white frosting and topped with chocolate curls.
I saved you a piece of Red Velvet Cake!

Music Connections

In looking at how the eDNA analysis works, I’m going to compare it to listening to an audio recording of a high school band. When a person listens to a recording of the band, they can tell what instruments are represented in the recording. For example, you may notice that there are flutes, oboes, clarinets, and saxophones, but perhaps the band is missing a bassoonist. If the group does a really good job of section playing, you would have a very tough time picking out HOW MANY flutists are in the recording. You may be able to hear that there are a lot of them, based on the depth of sound you hear throughout the dynamics being played, but you could not say with any confidence whether there are 7, 8, or 9 flutists. You also would not know whether one of the high school students was absent that day, or whether a guest was playing on the recording as well. The process of eDNA analysis is the same way – scientists can tell what was present in that one snapshot of time, based on the DNA present in the sample. They cannot tell you how many of each organism is present, or whether those organisms live there or were merely just migrating through the area. 

For today’s audio clip, I recorded the ship’s horn being blown as a result of the reduced visibility from the fog. I learned that there are several different patterns for the horn to blow, and the example I have for you here is the long fog horn blast followed by two short blasts, signaling that we are unable to change course (in this case, due to the fact that we are acoustically tethered to the AUV that was in the water at the time)

The ship’s fog horn

Student Questions

Students asked me to be on the lookout for dolphins. On our third day at sea, we saw a whole pod of dolphins right next to the ship! Here’s a very short video to watch them all, and I am not zoomed in at all with my phone!

Pod of dolphins swimming past NOAA Ship Bell M. Shimada
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Sam Garson: Introduction, September 2, 2024

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Sam Garson

Aboard NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow

September 6–25, 2024

Mission: 2024 Fall Bottom Trawl Survey

Geographic Area of Cruise: Northeast Atlantic Ocean

Date: September 2, 2025

Weather Data from Friday Harbor, Washington

Latitude: 48.52°N
Longitude: 123.02637°W
Wind Speed: N 0 MPH
Air Temperature: 12°C (53°F)

Introduction

Hello, my name is Sam Garson and I am thrilled to be a part of this year’s cohort of Teachers at Sea! I teach science and CTE STEM courses at Friday Harbor High School (FHHS) on an island off the coast of Washington State named San Juan Island. I teach AP Biology, AP Chemistry, Anatomy & Physiology, AP Computer Science Principles, AP Computer Science A, Robotics, Electric Vehicle Principles, Project Management and 3D Design and Fabrication… rural science education is no joke, folks.

I have been involved with education for 20 years now in roles from a substitute teacher in Miami, Florida to an education programs coordinator with a program not so dissimilar from the NOAA TAS program. In my current role as a rural remote educator, I push students to think about the world in terms well beyond their trips to “America” (the mainland), and instead adopt a “Glocal” perspective of thinking globally and acting locally.

view over the railing from the deck of a commuter ferry. we see the ferry's trailing wake through calm, bright blue waters; along the horizon are forested islands. The sky is bright blue and clear, with only a few wispy clouds toward the left of the image. Hanging on the railing is an orange life preserver with the name of the ferry, Kaleetan.
Island Life when the only access is by boat or plane Photo Credit: Sam Garson

Teaching science is something that I am incredibly passionate about, and I have worked hard to help my students realize the amazing STEM pathways that exist in today’s world. Especially now in my rural community, I want my students to see STEM as the gateway to a world economy desperate for their creativity, ingenuity and problem-solving skills. I strive to bring the real world into my classroom and allow my students to try and solve the issues they see in the world around them and ask BIG questions of what could be.

an enormous high-altitude weather balloon - perhaps 50 ft tall - inflated and ready to deploy from what appears to be a large parking lot or airplane runway. a construction vehicle, perhaps an excavator, is parked nearby, boom folded. in the far distance we can see mountains along the horizon.
World-View high altitude Balloon carrying FHHS student sensor up! Photo Credit: NASA

This past year, students from FHHS found themselves designing a radiation sensor for a NASA and World View high altitude balloon mission while being named State Finalists for Samsung’s Solve for Tomorrow Challenge.

I am thrilled to be able to show students a piece of the world that many of them have probably never thought about, and share with them the excitement of real world research, data collection and all the amazing technology, teamwork and collaboration among a host of different STEM careers that go into making this sort of survey possible.

Science and Technology Log

In just a few days time, I’ll be lucky enough to be back at sea aboard the NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow sailing out of Newport, Rhode Island. The Bottom Trawl survey operates along the Northwest Atlantic continental shelf, sampling at stations from Cape Lookout, North Carolina to Canada’s Scotian Shelf (NOAA Fisheries). This survey is actually the longest running of its kind in the world! There are more than 60 years worth of data from these surveys. Given the dynamic nature of climate change and ocean acidification, this data is needed more than ever.

a simple map of the area around Georges Bank (northeast of Cape Cod) and the Gulf of Maine. All land is shown in a plain beige color. Throughout the water are dots, labeled with numbers, showing sample stations. There are at least one hundred dots. The resolution of the image makes it difficult to read the station numbers.
Northeast Fisheries Science Center 2024 Spring Bottom Trawl Survey stations on Georges Bank and in the Gulf of Maine. Credit: NOAA Fisheries

The amount of cooperating technology, science and engineering that goes into a mission like this is truly incredible. I’m excited to be in a position to share the people, science and data that we collect over the next three weeks.

Personal Log

This cruise is an exciting and slightly strange one for me to participate in due to a few interesting coincidences. The first one that struck me was that I am a graduate of Henry B. Bigelow Middle School in Newton, Massachusetts. A name that, unless I have forgotten, the significance of was never revealed to me as a student there.

Perhaps the most striking coincidence with this cruise is the return to Rhode Island. As a new teacher in Seattle, Washington 15 years ago, I was one of the inaugural members of the Ocean Exploration Trust’s Teacher at Sea program. I had participated in a Research Experience for Teachers (RET) with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research program earlier that year and was alerted to this new opportunity by a colleague. What followed was 7 years of work with the Ocean Exploration Trust helping to take students and teachers out to sea on the E/V Nautilus.

That time in my career was incredibly transformative and the educational tools and values I developed there have been central to my pedagogy as a teacher in the 9 years since I left and returned to the classroom in Friday Harbor. I have tried to show my students how far and wide STEM can take you and all the different stories of people in those STEM fields.

Four men pose for a photo behind a desk in an office lined with trophies and framed photos. Two men on the right hold up an American flag, while Sam and the other man on the left hold up the Moroccan flag.
From working with educators in Meknes, Morocco as part of the Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms Program…( Photo Credit: Hassan Elhilali)
Only Sam's legs are visible, sporting a wet suit and flippers, as he dives into the water in front of a pier. A building on the pier has a large sign that reads University of Washington Friday Harbor Laboratories. Beyond, there are cranes, other docks, small vessels anchored in the harbor, and a tree-lined shore.
…to clearing kelp while working with researchers on the Friday Harbor Laboratories Ocean Observatory. (Photo Credit: Kirk Sato)

I am thrilled to return to sea with a very different type of expedition. Exploration is a key aspect of our understanding of the world’s oceans, but this opportunity to be a part of a longitudinal study to help understand the ecosystems and fauna present on the Northeast Coast is one that I am thrilled to be embarking on.

Did You Know?

Despite being the home of the Southern Resident Orcas, Orcas Island in the San Juan Archipelago is actually named for Juan Vicente de Güemes Padilla Horcasitas who sent an expedition to the islands in 1791!